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BC Board of Trustees will discuss AD candidates

It is getting close to crunch time on a decision to find the next athletic director at Boston College. The first step could come as early as Friday when the Boston College Board of Trustees holds a regularly scheduled meeting, with a prime topic of discussion being the candidates to replace outgoing BC Gene DeFilippo who will retire on Sunday.

BC President Father William Leahy reportedly has discussed the candidates with a focus group composed of several people, including BC VP Leo Sullivan, Andy Boynton, the Dean of BC’s Carroll School of Management and Fr. Jack Butler, BC’s newly appointed Mission Minister VP and a leading contender to replace Father Leahy when he retires.

That group, with Sullivan being the point man in the search, has identified 3 areas of concern for the next AD.

1. Fix the football program

2. Fund raising

3. Sports Marketing.

Using those parameters, the list of candidates, which first included people outside of the college administrative circle, as well as current AD’s and Associates, has been narrowed to a handful which include Wisconsin Deputy Athletic Director Sean Frazier and Miami (Ohio) Brad Bates, who are regarded as the two front-runners. Frazier reportedly been the only one to make a visit to BC to talk about the job, but there may also have been other preliminary interviews in Boston.

But according to sources at BC. the list of finalists could expand to four or five. An early favorite was Army AD Boo Corrigan. But Corrigan said that he was content to stay at West Point and continue the projects he started when he was hired in the winter of 2011. Another contender was VCU Athletic Director Ed McLaughlin, a BC graduate. But the 39-year old McLaughlin, who Sullivan considers a rising star, has only been at VCU since July and is reluctant to break his committment after such as short period.

Other early contenders, who could be in the picture because of Father Leahy’s preferences, include ADs at Saint Louis( Chris May) and Xavier (Mike Bobinski). Ajerseyguy.com has profiled both candidates in previous postings.

In the last few days, the buzz around BC regarding the AD search is that a replacement could be named as soon as next week. Other sources said the new AD might not be in place until the end of October.

Until then, Senior Associate Athletic Director John Kane will serve in an interim role as the Director of Athletics.

No one has been able to put a definitive time frame to the proceedings because the vetting process for all the candidates is not complete, although it could be done quickly if there is a consensus front-runner,

Frazier has been considered the leader since he appears to be the only candidate who has visited BC and has talked with Sullivan several times about the process and the steps that need to be completed.

Each of the candidates backgrounds has had some issues which have required further research, but no candidate has been eliminated because of it.